Eight-year-old Sunnyvale native swims Alcatraz

Finding a rhythm is crucial when swimming in the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay.

That rhythm was set to a particular tune on June 20 for 8-year-old Anaya Khanzode of Sunnyvale during the estimated 1.4-mile swim from Alcatraz that she did along with her 12-year-old sister, Mitali.

"I picked 'Just Keep Swimming' by Dori in Finding Nemo, because you have to just keep swimming," Anaya said.

Singing songs is just one of the techniques she used to power through her swim in the 59 degree water from Alcatraz to the shore of Aquatic Park, making the Sunnyvale native officially the youngest girl in the world to complete the swim--the youngest boy being 7-year-old Braxton Bilbrey, a second-grader from Glendale, Ariz., who completed the swim in 2006.

The Challenger School student jumped into the water shortly after 7 a.m. to start the swim with her coaches. Her father and head coach stayed close in a kayak along side them, and mom waited on shore with more family members cheering both girls on.

It was technically the second time Anaya had done the swim, but unfortunately her first attempt on June 14 did not count.

"She was swept off course by a strong outgoing ebb tide and there was nothing she could do; she needed to be picked up and relocated," said one of her coaches, Mike Lockwood, with Water World Swim, a swimming club based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

According to FINA, the international governing body of swimming, once a swimmer is touched or assisted, the swim becomes invalid.

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"Despite this, she finished her swim and actually swam much further than your typical Alcatraz crossing," Lockwood added. "Although we celebrated her effort and expressed nothing but pride in her attempt, I think she looked at it as a failure."

So on June 20, they attempted the swim again, but this time with a smaller group of swimmers. Within 55 minutes, the girls completed the swim to a roaring fanfare on shore.

Anaya said she wanted to do the swim before she turned 9--which she will on July 28--and that she plans on doing the Island to Island swim next, which spans two miles from Alcatraz to Angel Island.

"It was really fun and I enjoyed the support," Anaya said. "I don't know what I would do without support."

Leena Khanzode, the girls' mother, said she was determined to have her daughters be strong swimmers as she almost drowned, but never imagined how far the girls would take it.

The sisters are members of the St. Lawrence Swim Team, where they swim for two hours a day, five days a week. Sundays are their designated day for swims in the ocean.

"As a parent you want to provide as many opportunities for your child to succeed in what they are passionate about, and they have just gone above and beyond," Khanzode said. "They are always supportive of each other."

One such example of the sisters' mutual support happened last year, when Mitali did her Island to Island swim. Anaya rode on coach Mike Lockwood's back so she could be on shore with her sister when she finished.

"At the start of Anya's crossing, Mitali had planned to swim all out in an attempt to make it to shore in under 30 minutes," Lockwood said. "As she started to pull away from Anaya, we changed her plan a bit. We asked her to slow down a bit so that the group did not get too spread out. Her response to this was 'OK, my sister is more important than my time.'"

"When I see them reaching their goals, I think about all that they are capable of doing in the future," Lockwood said. "They are going to be able to do absolutely anything that they set their minds to doing."

Mitali already swam the waters spanning the Golden Gate Bridge and has done the swim from Alcatraz five times now, and Anaya is not far behind.

On Sept. 9, both girls plan on doing the Island to Island swim.

"I give so much credit to the girls who are very consistent with practice and follow our coaching," said coach Pedro Ordenes, founder of Water World Swim.

Ordenes holds the world record for Alcatraz swim crossings with more than 900. He is also the only person to complete a round trip crossing of the Beagle Channel between Chile and Argentina, in water temperatures averaging 39 degrees and without a wet suit. And in 1999, he swam across the Strait of Magellan in 39.7 degree waters.

"I'm very proud of them and to have them be on our team," Ordenes said of the sisters.